nner, do very frequently mimic the looks, gesture, and voice of the
person concerned, and for the time, as it were, put themselves into his
place. This gave the hint to the drama, or acting; and observing the
powerful effect of this in public exhibitions....

But the drama, the most artificial and complicated of all the poetical
machines, was not yet brought to perfection; and like those animals
which change their state, some parts of the old narrative still adhered.
It still had a chorus, it still had a prologue to explain the design;
and the perfect drama, an automaton supported and moved without any
foreign help, was formed late and gradually. Nay, there are still
several parts of the world in which it is not, and probably never may
be, formed. The Chinese drama.

The drama, being at length formed, naturally adhered to the first
division of poetry, the satirical and panegyrical, which made tragedy
and comedy.

Men, in praising, naturally applaud the dead. Tragedy celebrated the
dead.

Great men are never sufficiently shown but in struggles. Tragedy turned,
therefore, on melancholy and affecting subjects,--a sort of
threnodia,--its passions, therefore, admiration, terror, and pity.

Comedy was satirical. Satire is best on the living.

It was soon found that the best way to depress an hated character was to
turn it into ridicule; and therefore the greater vices, which in the
beginning were lashed, gave place to the _contemptible_. Its passion,
therefore, became ridicule.

Every writing must have its characteristic passion. What is that of
comedy, if not ridicule?

Comedy, therefore, is a satirical poem, representing an action carried
on by dialogue, to excite laughter by describing ludicrous characters.
See Aristotle.

Therefore, to preserve this definition, the ridicule must be either in
the action or characters, or both.

An action may be ludicrous, independent of the characters, by the
ludicrous situations and accidents which may happen to the characters.

But the action is not so important as the characters. We see this every
day upon the stage.

What are the characters fit for comedy?

It appears that no part of human life which may be subject to ridicule
is exempted from comedy; for wherever men run into the absurd, whether
high or low, they may be the subject of satire, and consequently of
comedy. Indeed, some characters, as kings, are exempted through decency;
others might be too insignificant.